Hindu Politician Gives Speech Inferring That Christians Are Traitors And Do Not Belong In India

The Bharatiya Janata Party, or BJP of India, has been using nationalism to stir up anti-Christian hatred. In a recent speech from one of their MPs, Gopal Shetty, he said that Christians have no part in India because they are ‘foreigners’:

Mumbai Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Gopal Shetty has stoked up a controversy by saying that Christians are ‘angrez’ (British) and did not contribute to the Indian freedom struggle.

Though the senior most city leader made the remarks last Sunday at an Eid Milan function in Malad suburb, videos of his speech surfaced only on Thursday and went viral.

Among other things, the Mumbai North MP said: “Christians were ‘angrez’, hence they didn’t join in the Indian freedom struggle. India was not freed by a Hindu or a Muslim, we fought as one for our Independence.”

Sharply criticizing Shetty, Maharashtra Congress President Ashok Chavan said: “It reflects despicably communal mindset of the BJP. Freedom struggle is the epitome of sacrifices made by all communities including Christians. Shetty must know that only RSS was in support of the British.”

Condemning the “anti-minority remarks”, Mumbai Congress President Sanjay Nirupam demanded that Shetty must tender “an apology to the entire Christian community of India as he has no knowledge of history or the contribution of the Christians in the independence movement”.

On Friday, All India Mahila Congress General Secretary Janet Desouza and Mumbai Mahila Congress President Ajanta Yadav held a protest outside Shetty’s office in Borivali West.

Two Christian residents from Malad – Mavis Fernandes and Jerard Lobo – submitted a written complaint against Shetty to police in Malvani, demanding action against the MP for promoting enmity between communities.

Malvani Congress legislator Aslam Shaikh pointed out that though small in numbers, the Christian community contributed significantly to the freedom struggle and also in nation building.

As the issue snowballed, Shetty on Thursday appeared to backtrack and said it was “a miscommunication and misinterpretation”, adding that people from every religion contributed to the freedom struggle.

Going further on the defensive on Friday, Shetty said “he was a responsible person with a long political career behind him and would never think embarrassing the BJP top leadership”, hinting at submitting his resignation.

However, on Friday, BJP state spokesperson Madhav Bhandari told the media that the party’s top leaders and state BJP President Raosaheb Patil-Danve have spoken with Shetty and the party stood by him.

Agitated members of the Christian community flooded the social media with names of prominent persons who had taken an active part in the freedom struggle, stood with leaders like Mahatma Gandhi and made many sacrifices on the personal and family fronts.

Christians in India have a presence going back to the days of the apostles himself, when St. Thomas the Apostle traveled to India to preach the Gospel and was martyred by being skinned alive. Many Christians continued to live in India for centuries before the Portuguese arrived, mostly in the provinces of Goa and on the Malabar coast in the state of Kerala and to a lesser extent Tamil Nadu.

The BJP supports the racist and nationalist Hindutva ideology, which desires to establish a “pure” Hindu ethnostate on the subcontinent and proposed to do this by exterminating or forcing all non-Hindus to convert to Hinduism. This includes Muslim and Christian alike, and according to former BJP members and Christians, there is a plan to use India’s national ID card called the Aadhaar (sometimes spelled Aadhar)- which also happens to be the most advanced of such identity collection systems in the world- to hunt down Christians and Muslims and to prevent them from buying or selling without submission to the Hindutva belief system.

To say that Christians did not support the freedom of India from the British is nonsense. However, this is rhetoric that is being used to enflame the passions of many Hindus to encourage their hatred of the Christians and build justification for their extermination.

According to those who have reported about the Aadhaar system, those who desire to see the extermination of Christians are waiting for the advent of a major war- most likely beginning in Europe- for the world to be distracted and consumed with fighting to implement their plans in the middle of the chaos.